An Activist Investor's Call for Change Prompts Citrix's Steep Climb

The price of cloud-computing company Citrix's shares spiked 6.7% on Thursday, making this TheStreet's move of the day.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The share price of Citrix (CTXS), the cloud-computing company, finished Thursday's trading day 6.7% ahead, making this TheStreet's move of the day.

The stock jumped after Elliott Management, which holds a 7.1% stake in Citrix, wrote a public letter to its board of directors suggesting the company reduce expenses and sell some of its businesses.

The letter said, "Citrix possesses high-value, strategic assets that we believe can be separated from the core 5Workspace Services segment: the GoTo franchise and NetScaler. Such separations would not only be meaningfully accretive to value but also would enable Citrix management to focus on improving the Company's core operational execution."

The activist investor said Citrix's stock price could reach $90 to $100 upon implementing the changes proposed. The stock currently trades around $70 per share after rallying 7 percent on Thursday morning, following the release of Elliot Management's letter.

Elliott Management also said it had hired a consulting firm, two investment banks, a marketing firm, among other experts, to help it understand the company better.

Priced at $70.39 at Thursday's market close, the stock is now trading at about 40 times its pre-share earnings last year, according to data compiled from Bloomberg.